Factors Associated with Psychiatrist Opt-out from US Medicare: an Observational Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Concerns exist about availability and access to psychiatric services in the USA. For Medicare beneficiaries, one impediment to psychiatric services is the extent to which psychiatrists have opted out of the Medicare program.

Objective

This study describes geographic variation in rates that psychiatrists opt out of Medicare, and assesses physician-level and geographic-level predictors of opt-out.

Design

Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of data describing psychiatrists' opt-out status as of March 2017 linked to data on psychiatrist location, psychiatrist characteristics (obtained from a comprehensive US physician database), and market area-level characteristics.

Participants

27,838 psychiatrists in the USA MAIN MEASURES: Whether a psychiatrist ha

SUBMITTER: Yu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6848419 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature